Eight Months!

Eight months??  No, Little Man, it can't be!!  You are growing, changing, and learning like crazy.  It's crazy to me to think that you have not yet been outside of me as long as you were inside of me, but I can't really remember life before you.  Of course I remember specific memories, but life doesn't seem to have matter all that much.  Your daddy and I both agree on that!  You make us laugh so much.

You are still sleeping well, as long as you aren't battling your allergies or having tooth issues.  You generally go to bed between 7-8 each night, after a bath and bottle.  You wake up between 4-6 for a bottle, then go back to bed for a few hours.  You have stopped taking a paci.  That was odd to me, but I'm not going to fight it.  It started when you were congested and couldn't breath through your nose and you just haven't wanted it since then.  We will try to give it to you but you won't take it.  I'm about ready to go ahead and toss them!  You take at least two naps a day.  Usually you go down around 10 or so and wake up around noon, sometimes 1 depending on how busy you were that morning.  Then you take a quicker afternoon nap, from around 3-4 or so.  Of course you have your days where you completely throw me for a loop and only take a 30 minute nap!  But those days are few and far between (Thank goodness!).

You love to play!  You have some favorite toys right now.  Some little cups that go inside of each other seem to be your favorite right now.  You usually put one in each hand and clap them together.  Speaking of clapping, you are making the motion with your hands and meeting them together, just not making the clapping noise.  It's so cute to see you do that when you get excited.  It's usually accompanied by you bouncing and giggling, which makes it even cuter!  You recently have learned to make a new noise with your mouth.  It's kind of like a kissy noise, but not made with your lips.  It's too hard to explain.  I'll try to get it on video at some point.  You are pulling up on absolutely everything!  Even things that I think are too tall for you to reach, you grab hold and pull yourself up.  Each day you get better and better at it.  You have walked the length of the ottoman and the coffee table, holding on of course.  We dropped your crib mattress about a month ago, but you still are able to pull yourself up and stand when you really don't want to be in there.  I am still trying to get used to walking in to check on you and seeing your little head popped over the top staring at me!

You are army crawling like crazy.  You are quite fast at it, too, especially if you see something you shouldn't get into and my back is turned!  Before I know it, you have found a random cord, our shoes, or even the corner of a rug you have pulled up.  Also, you are making the waving motion with your left hand.  You don't do it with your right hand yet and you don't actually wave to anyone but yourself!  Sometimes when you are really upset you will be crying and waving your hand.  I think you just like the movement of your wrist.  You get frustrated when you can't do something just right.  I try my hardest to simply encourage you from afar to keep trying.  You are getting better at calming yourself down.  Of course, if you are extremely upset or really hurt yourself, I swoop you up and hold you for a bit.  You are enjoying climbing under the coffee table all the time, unfortunately that means you bonk your head all the time.  Most of the time you don't even bat an eye, but if you are tired you will get very upset.

You are saying a few words, but haven't associated them with what they are.  You say "mama" (usually you say "my mama" and it's so cute!), "dada", "hi", "hey", "yay" and a few others.  I try to point to what you are saying when you say it, but I don't know if that is really making a difference.  You will eventually understand what you are saying.  I'm just enjoying you figuring out how to make different sounds.

Generally, 9 month clothes fit you best, but you still have some 6 month bottoms I can put you in that work (barely) and I actually have some 3 month polos that I can still get on you, but should probably go ahead and retire.  We went shopping a few weekends ago and got you quite a few fall/winter shirts and a few pair of pants.  I can't wait for it to cool down so you can wear your fun JBU colored rugby shirts!  You are going to look pretty adorable in them!

You take about 3 8oz bottles a day, along with 2-3 foods a day.  You eat every 3.5-4 hours.  You enjoy apples and oatmeal in the mornings, a veggie blend in the afternoon, and a meat and veggie in the evening.  You have had some stage 3 meals, with the chunkier bits of meat or noodles.  You do well with those, so we will be doing more of those now.  You love your mum-mums, as well as little puffs that you can pick up and eat.  It's weird to think in a few months you will be eating pretty much whatever we eat, just little bitty bites of it!  You still just have your bottom two teeth.  You're top two teeth have been trying to come in for over a week now.  I'm beginning to think they never will (just kidding, they'll come in!)!

We usually go up to see Daddy at work a few times a week.  We try to get out of the house once a day, even if we don't really have a place we need to be.  You usually get a little restless (as do I), so it's nice to get out and drive around or stop by the pharmacy and see Daddy.  Everyone just loves you.  You've been nicknamed "Baby Caps" by one of the guys.  You definitely are the spitting image of your daddy.  I took a picture of you the other day and couldn't believe it when I looked at it.  You look JUST like he did at your age!  It's truly incredible.

Robby, you have been more of a blessing than we could have ever imagined you being.  Of course, we dreamed about how amazing you would be, but you have far far surpassed our dreams.  You are the best little boy.  We love you and love being your mommy and daddy.